52 Nebraskaland • April 2019
Keith Jadlowski (left), Brett Smith and Jake Jadlowski show off a stringer of
walleye at Lake McConaughy.
ike most of us, I've fi shed for all
kinds of fi sh in a whole bunch of
diff erent places. But regardless
of species and location, most of
the fi shing I've done has been
centered around my rod, my lure and
me. Whether I'm fl ipping jigs for
largemouth bass or bottom bouncing
for walleye, most of my success or my
failure is mine alone. Like golf, there is
no guarantee that two guys using the
same ball and driver will hit a tee shot
that lands in the middle of the fairway.
Likewise, there is no guarantee that
two guys in the same boat, using the
same lure and tactics, will catch the
same amount of fi sh. I truly enjoy this
individual element of fi shing.
But I've also learned that there is a
lot of fun to be had while fi shing as a
part of a team, and trolling crankbaits
for walleye is the ultimate team sport.
It takes a team to manage the chaos
of running multiple lines, attaching
planer boards, changing out lures,
fi xing giant tangles, switching motors,
controlling the boat, fi ghting the fi sh,
netting the fi sh, getting the boat back
on course and redeploying all the lines.
Success is shared, and it requires the
contribution of everyone on board.
When trolling crankbaits for walleyes,
it doesn't matter if you reeled it in. It
feels like every fi sh is your fi sh, and it's
a blast.
Unfortunately, failure is also
shared. And my team did a lot of that
before we got smart and upgraded
our equipment and developed a
system that was effi cient enough to
occasionally fi ll up the livewell. Our
fi rst attempts at trolling resulted from
a slow bottom-bouncing bite as we
tried to cover more water in order to
locate fi sh. This was fun. We found
that the bite could be fast and furious.
However, as we increased the amount
of time we spent trolling, we quickly
learned that our system was not good.
Hand rods resulted in varying rod tip
locations that altered the depth of our
lures. There was no way to know how
much line we had out. And even if we
did, we didn't know how much line to
L
Walleye
Trolling
101
Story and Photos by
Jake Jadlowski